About

Vision

Our vision is ambitious: infrastructure unlocks freedoms. This means that the choices and opportunities we have in daily life (to work, study, create, visit family, etc.) would not be open to us without the supporting infrastructure that we rely on every day. Infrastructure leaders have the power to expand the real freedoms available to individuals around the world. Our vision has roots in Amartaya Sen’s Development as Freedom applied to the lens of civil infrastructure. Sen’s work, a cornerstone of UN development policy and measurement, contends that improved quality of life through any kind of social investment must ultimately be realized through and measured by the expansion of freedoms.

Mission

Our mission has four components. First, as a fundamentally philanthropic company, our mission is to resource the staff-managed Fireseeds North Foundation with finances for impact-focused giving. Second, as a company of infrastructure specialists, our mission is to support infrastructure leadership projects that expand freedoms available to society. Third, our mission is to make work a great place to be – a worthwhile investment of time, a place to lead, and a place to grow for individuals who join our team. Fourth, our mission is to make a profit for our investors.

Values

Our values are leadership and generosity. These values influence the composition, initiatives, and performance of our team. They also shape our vision and mission. We value a collaborative approach to corporate and infrastructure leadership where everyone has a voice and everyone works to create positive change from the status quo. We also value a generous approach to life and work that orients the company and its team members towards high impact choices focused on the needs of others.

Our Story

Fireseeds North Infrastructure began full-time operations on October 1, 2014. Our founder and Managing Director Craig Milligan worked 10 years in non-profits, consulting, government, research, teaching, and multilateral infrastructure finance before founding Fireseeds North Infrastructure. The time spent in each of these sectors shaped the company around the beliefs that infrastructure unlocks freedoms and that a life invested in generosity and leadership is a life well spent.

During our first year of full time operations, jurisdictions across Canada relied on Fireseeds North Infrastructure to support close to 70 road safety and asset management projects. Our staff team grew rapidly as top young professionals and industry veterans joined our team. We changed offices twice and benefited from mentoring support at Manitoba’s Eureka Project Business Incubator during this time.

Our Name

Ancient Korean villages had a central firebank where new charcoal was burned until it was white hot, then buried in ashes where it remained for days. Anyone from the village could take home one of these coals, called a fireseed, to start a fire (Becker, 2007). The image of a fireseed has since inspired many comparisons; for our firm the name symbolizes communities and infrastructure leaders working together to unlock freedoms.

Fireseeds North Infrastructure is an engineering firm focused on impact and innovation in the transportation sector. We work in Canada, Latin America, the Middle East, and North Africa. We bring over 125 years of experience to our work in transportation asset management, road safety, inclusive transport, emerging technologies, and transportation engineering. Since our launch in 2014, we have completed over 100 projects and four software programs, touching an infrastructure portfolio valued at over $100 billion, all aimed at providing rigorous and dependable decision-support to our clients.